Phils flop in Cincy

Monday, April 15, 2013

CINCINNATI — Ben Revere had a slice of tape pressed against the webbing on the back of his fielding glove Monday night. On it was written, “Pray For Boston.”

“When I went out there (during pregame), I kind of came back in and just put it on there,” the Phillies’ center fielder said, “Just all the families out there ... A tragedy like that, anywhere in the world, I’m usually thinking about that.”

The tragedy was the bombs that detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon that wounded dozens and shook the nation. In some ways it made the Phillies’ 4-2 loss to the Reds in mid-April feel rather trivial.

That said, both teams went out and played at a high level, with quality starting pitching on both sides and some terrific defensive plays. The best, however, came courtesy of Revere. His diving grab of a Todd Frazier drive off Cliff Lee to deep center in the bottom of the second inning was about as good as it gets -- almost good enough to make one forget the evils of the world for a moment.

“I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure I’ll see it,” Revere said. “I’d like to get a Gold Glove, so I’ll bust my tail for that.”

“That,” Lee said, “probably was the best play I’ve seen in a while.”

If only it had come in a win, there might be more to cherish about it.

The Phillies had their problems scoring runs against the Florida Marlins, which was something of a bad sign.

And if laboring against a 20-year-old making his second big-league start and first attempt to put on a jacket over the weekend seemed to be a dire sight, then facing the Reds’ best pitcher of the last decade with the defending National League Central champions mired in a five-game losing skid wasn’t going to be easy.

And it wasn’t.Despite getting a game-tying pinch-hit homer from Chase Utley in the top of the eighth, the Phillies saw Jeremy Horst and Mike Adams fall victim to a couple of bleeders and grounded singles in the bottom of the inning.

“It’s easy to show up every day when things are good,” said Horst, whose ERA is 9.53 this season after ending 2012 with a 1.15 ERA in 32 games. “That’s the nature of the beast ... If you didn’t struggle, then you wouldn’t want to keep coming back. Last year was good, but last year is last year. Hopefully it will even out.”

Through 6 1/2 innings it seemed Lee and Arroyo both might be on a path to throw up zeroes straight into extra frames. Both were on pace to be below 100 pitches and not only were the bats fairly quiet, the rare hard-hit balls were being vacuumed up by fielders on top of their games.

Oddly enough, it was a pair of left-handed batters who forced Lee to blink in the bottom of the seventh. Joey Votto led off the frame with a single to right, then moved to third when Brandon Phillips got a double just over the modest vertical leap Michael Young has at third.

Next up was Jay Bruce, and after fighting off a couple of two-strike pitches -- including a check-swing at which both Lee and Charlie Manuel thought Bruce offered -- Lee’s 2-2 delivery bounced in front of the plate and went through Erik Kratz’s five-hole, allowing Votto to score the game’s first run. After Bruce walked, Phillips scored on a sacrifice fly to put Cincy up, 2-0.

“I thought so,” Lee said when asked if he though he had Bruce struck out, “but they said he didn’t go, so what can you do? He battled right there. I made some really good pitches to him. It was a good at-bat by him.”

That seemed like trouble until Utley came up to pinch-hit with two outs in the eighth. The Reds stuck with Arroyo and Utley made them pay with his third homer of the season and the Phils’ third pinch-home run.

That tie evaporated quickly. Horst, who has struggled in the early going, gave up a swinging-bunt hit to start the frame, then watched a blooper in right-center find open ground to put runners at second and third. After Votto was walked to load the bases, Adams was hailed. But back-to-back grounders by Phillips and Bruce got past Freddy Galvis for RBI singles.

Aroldis Chapman made mince meat of the Phils in the bottom of the ninth, punctuating it with a strikeout of Ryan Howard on a 100 mph fastball.

It was a tough loss in baseball terms. But as it pertains to life ... Revere kept perspective on the back of his glove.

“I wanted to reach out to the family out there, just keep them in my heart,” he said. “It hurts to see something like that happen. It’s painful. That’s why every single day is precious ... Both pitchers pitched a great game. It was just one of those games where we were playing for the fans and family, just to give them comfort.”